Amazon opens first Fresh supermarket, more to follow

Amazon has opened its first Fresh supermarket in California, combining a rather traditional product range with innovative technology. The store in Woodland Hills (Los Angeles) uses smart shopping carts to ensure a frictionless check-out.

Competitive pricing

The e-commerce giant has big plans with its new chain of physical supermarkets, that will exist side by side with the (much more up-market) Whole Foods chain and the smaller, fully automated convenience stores called Amazon Go. The new chain wants to offer competitive pricing for a product range that includes both major brands and private labels – the latter including Whole Foods’ 365 and Fresh. Meals, sandwiches, pizzas, chicken and bread will be prepared on the spot, and – obviously – customers can order all these things through the app.

The 1,000 sqm store will feature the smart Dash shopping carts, equipped with sensors and image recognition to see which products are placed in the cart and to immediately add them to the shopping ticket. This means customers no longer need to queue at the check-out. Prime-members can also shop online and have their order delivered at home or prepared for pick-up at a time of their own convenience. Assistance by Alexa will be integrated as well, both with in-store kiosks and at home (where it can prepare a shopping list).

At first, the store will only be open for a limited group of customers, invitation only. Later in the following weeks, everybody will be welcome. Moreover, at least three similar stores will open soon: it seems that through this concept, Amazon will finally be able to become a real challenger to traditional supermarkets like Kroger or Albertsons.